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Bringing beauty to local girls

Angelica Heggem, the current Miss Beavercreek and Beavercreek High School senior sought out to make sure that every girl, not only in Beavercreek, but every local community was able to feel like a princess during the homecoming dance. How, you may ask? By teaming up with the Tinkerbell Closet and collecting donations of formal dresses for girls that could not ordinarily afford them or wanted to wear recycled clothing.

“I was searching for something to do for my individual service project for National Honor Society when I discovered Tinkerbell’s Closet,” said Heggem. “I decided that this was a very worthwhile cause and loved it from the very first time I volunteered. By working with this organization, not only was I helping girls find the dress of their dreams, I was also feeding into my formal dress obsession. I love dresses!”

From September 20 to October 4, Heggem collected 75 homecoming dresses and set up temporary shop after school October 5 and 6 in the Beavercreek High School with the help of teacher Ms. Erbaugh. The shop offered free dresses and accessories to any homecoming girl. The remaining dresses were donated to the Tinkerbell Closet in Germantown, which supplies dresses and accessories to all Miami Valley area girls.

“I teamed up with the school’s administration to get everything approved from beginning to end. I printed and hung posters, decorated large moving boxes, and sent in announcements to be read in the mornings at the High School,” Heggem said. “After collecting dresses for two weeks, I moved all of the dresses to the Beavercreek High School pantry and set up a display for girls to shop through.”

This experience taught Heggem about how important it is to be a volunteer. She said that without all the volunteers and donors, many girls would end up not going to school dances because they would not have the proper attire. With her efforts and individual’s donations, each girl that visited her school shop or Tinkerbell’s Closet were provided a dress and two accessories, such as shoes, purse, strapless bra or jewelry. “The process is not invasive at all, just sign in, browse through the available items and sign out the items chosen. It’s super simple, fun and exciting.”

Tinkerbell’s Closest has helped over 475 girls since August 22 of this year. So, by donating additional dresses, it helped stock them back up. In this day and age, girls tend to want to reuse dresses rather than purchase new ones- even if they have the resources to do so. Heggem said that she would love to see girls do more of that.

“The first week of the dress drive, the donations were minimal. It was disheartening but the next week the dress donation box was overflowing,” said Heggem. “I’m already planning a prom dress drive for this spring. I want to keep this going long after I leave Beavercreek High School.”